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The bulk of the Prince Family
Papers reflects the legal work of John Prince (1782-1848) as a clerk for the Essex
County Courts, a notary public, a justice of the peace, and an attorney active in
Salem (circa 1804-1839).

Collection Number:

MSS 72

Series List

SERIES I. John Prince Professional Case FilesSERIES II. John Prince Professional PapersSERIES III. Prince Family Papers

Scope and Content Note

The bulk of the Prince Family Papers reflects the legal
work of John Prince (1782-1848) as a clerk for the Essex County Courts, a notary
public, a justice of the peace, and an attorney active in Salem (circa 1804-1839).
The collection also contains personal papers of John Prince (1782-1839), papers of
his brother William Henry (1786-1815), and scientific papers of his father Reverend
John Prince (1751-1836). The papers are divided into three series.

Series I. John Prince Professional Case Files is
comprised of legal cases dealing with the administration of estates, cases of debt,
bankruptcy, and spoliation. The spoliation cases contain ships' papers, statements,
and protests for a number of Salem vessels which were captured and held in Naples,
Holland, and Norway between 1809 and 1810.

Series II. John Prince Professional Papers contains
appointments, correspondence, case notes, memorandums, legal documents,
administrative accounts, and client accounts. The client accounts, miscellaneous
correspondence, and many of the legal documents provide background materials
relating to legal cases. Additional client accounts may be found in the receipts and
account books (Box 2, folder 5 and 6). Prince's clients included members of the
Derby, Bowditch, Peabody, Hale, Saltonstall, Ingersoll, and Allen families.

Series III. Prince Family Papers includes John Prince
personal papers, the papers of his brothers George (born 1791) and William Henry
(1786-1815) and of his father, Reverend John Prince (1751-1836). John Prince papers
include his correspondence and minutes as clerk of the stockholders of the Amesbury
Nail Factory Company and the Salem and Chelmsford Turnpike as well as miscellaneous
accounts and receipts. Reverend John Prince's papers include correspondence on
religious subjects, experiment notes on the fuel efficiency of various woods, notes
on thermometers and electricity, and the final manuscript copy (1783) of his work on
air pumps. William Henry's papers contain his correspondence and accounts as
supercargo of the ship Salus, a vessel upon which John
Prince (1782-1848) also consigned cargo.

Biographical Sketches

John Prince was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on July
22, 1751, the son of John Prince (1716-1786) and Ester Guild (1721-1799). After
completing his indentures to a tinsmith and pewterer, Prince studied for entrance to
Harvard College and enrolled in 1772. He graduated in 1776 and went on to study
divinity for a master's degree with the Reverend Samuel Williams of Bradford,
Massachusetts. He was ordained in 1779 and became the pastor of the
Congregationalist First Church of Salem. He was, among other things, an amateur
astronomer and physicist. He became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the American Philosophical
Society. Brown University honored him with a LL.D in 1795.

Prince's interest in science was encouraged by John Winthrop, the Hollis
Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard. His metalworking skills
enabled him to become proficient in the repair and design of scientific instruments.
He frequently entertained his friends with scientific experiments, microscopical
observations, and magic lantern lectures on a variety of topics.

He married Mary Bayley (1754-1806) on April 12, 1780 and they had four children:
John (1782-1848), Thomas (born 1784), William Henry (1786-1815), and George (born
1791). In November 1816, he married Milly Messinger Waldo (1762-1839). He died on
June 7, 1836 in Salem.

John Prince was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1782,
the son of Rev. John Prince and Mary Bayley (1754-1806). He was a clerk for the
Essex County Courts, a notary public, a justice of the peace, and an attorney active
in Salem (circa 1804-1839). He married Louisa Lander and they had four children:
Mary Louisa (1813-1848), William Henry (born 1817), John (1816-1817) and John (born
1823). He died in 1848.

William Henry Prince was born in 1786, the son of
John Prince and Mary Bayley. He was a supercargo aboard the ship Salus. He died in 1815.

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in Philcat. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons,
or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Baker,
Thomas

Barr, James,
Jr.

Bessell,
Frederick

Brown, Enoch

Burbank,
Thomas

Ingersoll,
George

Prince, George,
1791-

Prince, John,
1751-1836

Prince, John,
1782-1848

Prince, William Henry,
1786-1815

Amesbury Nail Factory Co.

Heracles (Ship)

Neptune (Schooner)

Oceanus (Schooner)

Pacific (Bark)

Salus (Ship)

Account books

Administration of estates

Bankruptcy

Deeds

Justices of the peace

Lawyers

Merchants--Salem (Mass.)

Science--Experiments

Salem (Mass.)

United States--History--Spoliation
Claims

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Copyright

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in
writing to the Manuscript Librarian in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex
Museum.

Preferred Citation

Provenance

The Prince Family Papers are a reorganization and integration of 9 boxes and several
miscellaneous documents. The bulk of the collection comes from an unknown source.
The subscription list for purchasing clothing for Reverend John Prince was donated
by Henry Wilder Foote in 1947. Removed from the collection are the estate papers of
Captain Josiah Orne (see Separation Sheet). All items removed from the collection
are marked with their original location.

The bulk of the Prince Family Papers reflects the legal work of John Prince (1782-1848) as a clerk for the Essex County Courts, a notary public, a justice of the peace, and an attorney active in Salem (circa 1804-1839).

The Prince Family Papers are a reorganization and integration of 9 boxes and several miscellaneous documents. The bulk of the collection comes from an unknown source. The subscription list for purchasing clothing for Reverend John Prince was donated by Henry Wilder Foote in 1947.